Character Information
WARNING: SPOILERS ARE PRESENT FOR KEY: THE METAL IDOL.
The entire story for Key can be found here.
Tokiko Mima (Key)
Fandom: Key The Metal Idol
Age: 15-17 (Her autistic nature makes her seem far younger)
Gender: Female
OU, AU, or RU: Original Universe
Best links to learn about Key and her History:
http://www.tapanime.com/series/key/intro.html
"The central character to our story. Tokiko is a seventeen year-old girl whose "grandfather", Dr. Mima Murao, told her that she is a robot and that she had been rebuilt several times during the years of her life; as a child, for example, she had the body-size of a child. As her brain accumulated the knowledge of passing years, she was remade by the professor into a progressively more adult shape.
Tokiko, often shortened to "Key", appears to most people as a somewhat autistic child. Her aspect is that as a forlorn, attention-wavering girl whose responses to typical situations elicit rather non-typical reactions. This personality has caused some concern to those that know her. Sakura and Tataki, for example, seem to think Key is not a robot so much as having been terrified in a robot-related incident during her childhood. At one point they are determined to snap Key out of her fugue.
Things are not this straightforward, however. Key is apparently a robot, but with a capacity to become human. What this capacity is is a mystery to all except perhaps Dr. Mima--and he is dead. Key was often referred to as Murao's granddaughter, a notion Key herself accepted. This identity, along with such concepts as having friends--Sakura in particular--appear to be one of the mechanisms Dr. Mima initiated in his quest to make her human.
With the death of Dr. Mima, Key is charged with the task of completing her journey toward human enlightenment of without the doctor's guidance. In his final words, Dr. Mima urgently explains that Key must have friends to make her human, "friends willing to cry for you...you need thirty-thousand of those friends."
It is this quest that forms the central theme to the series."
Is Key a Robot?
"NO. Key is a flesh and blood human girl. The reason for her belief in being a robot is due to the steps Doctor Mima took to protect her from Ajo. To understand why Dr. Mima did this, one must understand the special talents of the women in the Mima family and the events prior to Key's birth. (This is what most of episode 14 describes).
Each of the women in the Mima family demonstrated powers resembling telekinesis. With each successive generation, those powers increased. Tomiko's (Key's mother) powers surpassed those of Toyoko (Key's grandmother) just as Key's abilities far surpassed those of her mother. Concerned for Key's safety, Dr. Mima injected Key with the Gel he had collected from Tomiko during his years of study, with the result of "sealing" Key's soul--the core of her powers--from the physical world and most notably from Ajo."
Why does Key need 30,000 Friends?
"Key, having been injected with twenty-plus years' worth of Gel samples taken from her mother by Dr. Mima, cannot act human because of the sealing properties of the Gel. That seal can be breached, but it takes a counter-seal of equal strength. The emotional outpouring of 30,000 people on Key's behalf is the magic number that breaks the seal.
This also explains how smaller groups of people who emote on Key's behalf can cause Key's abilites to surface: her soul is freed from its Gel prison --albeit temporarily--and her true self emerges, along with her abilities. After a time, however, the Gel of her mother re-asserts itself and closes off Key's soul, precipitating a blackout."
The entire story for Key can be found here.
Tokiko Mima (Key)
Fandom: Key The Metal Idol
Age: 15-17 (Her autistic nature makes her seem far younger)
Gender: Female
OU, AU, or RU: Original Universe
Best links to learn about Key and her History:
http://www.tapanime.com/series/key/intro.html
"The central character to our story. Tokiko is a seventeen year-old girl whose "grandfather", Dr. Mima Murao, told her that she is a robot and that she had been rebuilt several times during the years of her life; as a child, for example, she had the body-size of a child. As her brain accumulated the knowledge of passing years, she was remade by the professor into a progressively more adult shape.
Tokiko, often shortened to "Key", appears to most people as a somewhat autistic child. Her aspect is that as a forlorn, attention-wavering girl whose responses to typical situations elicit rather non-typical reactions. This personality has caused some concern to those that know her. Sakura and Tataki, for example, seem to think Key is not a robot so much as having been terrified in a robot-related incident during her childhood. At one point they are determined to snap Key out of her fugue.
Things are not this straightforward, however. Key is apparently a robot, but with a capacity to become human. What this capacity is is a mystery to all except perhaps Dr. Mima--and he is dead. Key was often referred to as Murao's granddaughter, a notion Key herself accepted. This identity, along with such concepts as having friends--Sakura in particular--appear to be one of the mechanisms Dr. Mima initiated in his quest to make her human.
With the death of Dr. Mima, Key is charged with the task of completing her journey toward human enlightenment of without the doctor's guidance. In his final words, Dr. Mima urgently explains that Key must have friends to make her human, "friends willing to cry for you...you need thirty-thousand of those friends."
It is this quest that forms the central theme to the series."
Is Key a Robot?
"NO. Key is a flesh and blood human girl. The reason for her belief in being a robot is due to the steps Doctor Mima took to protect her from Ajo. To understand why Dr. Mima did this, one must understand the special talents of the women in the Mima family and the events prior to Key's birth. (This is what most of episode 14 describes).
Each of the women in the Mima family demonstrated powers resembling telekinesis. With each successive generation, those powers increased. Tomiko's (Key's mother) powers surpassed those of Toyoko (Key's grandmother) just as Key's abilities far surpassed those of her mother. Concerned for Key's safety, Dr. Mima injected Key with the Gel he had collected from Tomiko during his years of study, with the result of "sealing" Key's soul--the core of her powers--from the physical world and most notably from Ajo."
Why does Key need 30,000 Friends?
"Key, having been injected with twenty-plus years' worth of Gel samples taken from her mother by Dr. Mima, cannot act human because of the sealing properties of the Gel. That seal can be breached, but it takes a counter-seal of equal strength. The emotional outpouring of 30,000 people on Key's behalf is the magic number that breaks the seal.
This also explains how smaller groups of people who emote on Key's behalf can cause Key's abilites to surface: her soul is freed from its Gel prison --albeit temporarily--and her true self emerges, along with her abilities. After a time, however, the Gel of her mother re-asserts itself and closes off Key's soul, precipitating a blackout."